Cosmopolitan, richly intelligent, beautiful, questing - Shirley Hazzard's writing reflects her life. The acclaim it attracts is immeasurable.


Drawing on diaries, letters and interviews, alongside a close reading of Hazzard's fiction, Brigitta Olubas tells the story of a girl from the suburbs of Sydney, Australia who fell early under the spell of words and sought out books as her companions. In the process she transformed and indeed created her life. She became a woman of the world who felt injustice keenly and a deep and original thinker, who wrote some of the most beautiful award-winning fiction about love and longing - Transit of Venus, The Great Fire, among them - and always with an eye to the ways we reveal ourselves to another.


'One of those rare biographies that sends one greedily back to the subject's work, better equipped to appreciate the richness on display' Lucy Scholes, Financial Times


'Strikingly well-placed and well-proportioned ... as befits her subject, Olubas comes with a gift for place and psychology' Michael Hofmann, Times Literary Supplement


'This new account of Hazzard's life should confirm her as one of the 20th century's greatest novelists' Chloe Schama, Vogue


'An impeccably researched and deeply incisive account of Hazzard's life and work, and the intriguing interplay between the two' Lily King, New York Times